The offices and halls of the Florida Capitol and both the Senate and House wings are filled with hustle and bustle as the 2023 Florida Legislative Session begins this week. Truthfully, they have all been hard at work for months and now is the time to debate, negotiate and pass bills and funding to enhance and build upon our already Great Free State of Florida.
State Senator Jay Trumbull is among the elected few and has been very busy filling bills and funding requests. Senator Trumbull is from Panama City, Florida and received 76% of the vote here in Jackson County. Jay has already proved his servitude with an outstanding record by previously serving 8 years in the Florida House of Representatives. His experience and insight are invaluable to his important committee assignments. Senator Trumbull’s Committee Assignments for the 2023 Legislative Session are Chair of The Committee of Commerce and Tourism; Vice Chair of The Appropriations Committee on Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development; Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government; Committee on Banking and Insurance; Committee on Fiscal Policy; Committee on Judiciary; Committee on Transportation; and Select Committee on Resiliency.
Eight hundred forty-eight bills have already been filed and 1,480- 2023 Local Funding Initiative Requests made in The Florida Senate for 2023 Legislative Session. Senator Trumbull has thus far filed 16 senate bills and made 63 local funding initiative requests. Due to printing constraints, we will cover 8 of those bills in this publication and the other 8 bills in next week’s publication.
SB 170: Local Ordinances
“Authorizing courts to assess and award reasonable attorney fees and costs and damages in certain civil actions filed against local governments; providing certain procedures for continued meetings on proposed ordinances for counties; requiring a county to suspend enforcement of an ordinance that is the subject of a certain legal action if certain conditions are met; providing certain procedures for continued meetings on proposed ordinances for municipalities, etc.”
SB 534: Individual Wine Containers
“Individual Wine Containers; Repealing provisions relating to the limitation of size of individual wine containers, etc.”
SB 538: Provisional Child Care Licensing
“Provisional Child Care Licensing; Requiring a local licensing agency or the Department of Children and Families to issue a provisional license or registration for a family day care home under certain circumstances, etc.”
SB 560: Public Records/Servicemembers
“Public Records/Servicemembers; Providing an exemption from public records requirements for identification and location information of servicemembers and the spouses and dependents of servicemembers; providing for retroactive application; providing for future legislative review and repeal of the exemption; providing a statement of public necessity, etc.”
SB 1018: Flood Damage Prevention
“Flood Damage Prevention; Citing this act as the “Flood Damage Prevention Act of 2023”; providing voluntary freeboard requirements for all new construction and substantial improvements to existing construction; prohibiting voluntary freeboard from being used in the calculation of the maximum allowable height for certain construction in applicable zoning districts; authorizing local governments to adopt by ordinance a minimum freeboard requirement or a maximum voluntary freeboard that exceeds the minimum requirements in the Florida Building Code or established in the act, etc”.
SB 1030: Recycling of Covered Electronic Devices
“Recycling of Covered Electronic Devices; Establishing the statewide Covered Electronic Device Recovery Program within the Department of Environmental Protection; authorizing the department to use specified funds to administer the program; specifying requirements for a statewide plan for the recycling of covered electronic devices; prohibiting any person from disposing of covered electronic devices except at a permitted reclamation facility beginning on a specified date; requiring the department to deposit any funds received pursuant to the program into the Solid Waste Management Trust Fund to be used for specified purposes, etc.”
SB 1032: Fees
“Authorizing the Department of Environmental Protection to charge a fee for reclamation facility permits, providing a limitation for such fee, etc.”
SB 1084: Long-term Managed Care Program
“Long-term Managed Care Program; Requiring the Agency for Health Care Administration to select, through a specified procurement process, a qualified long-term care plan to implement a pilot program in Miami-Dade County to provide coverage of comprehensive services for Medicaid recipients who have developmental disabilities; providing requirements for the pilot program and the selected qualified plan; requiring the agency to contract for an independent evaluation of the performance of the plan, etc.”
If you would like to contact Senator Trumbull, please find below his office locations, and phone numbers.
Capitol Office District Office
320 Senate Building
404 South Monroe St 840 West 11th St
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1100 Panama City, FL 32401
(850) 487-5002 (850) 747-5454
Remember our democracy works best if its citizens are informed and participate in the process. I’ll keep you posted and updated on upcoming legislative events.
Published | Jackson County Times | March 9, 2023